Riverside Church

Not to be confused with Riverside Baptist Church.

Riverside Church
Riverside Church in 2013
Riverside Church Location within Manhattan Riverside Church Location within New York City Riverside Church Location within New York Riverside Church Location within the United States
40°48′43″N 73°57′47″W
Location	New York City
Country	United States
Denomination	Interdenominational: ABCUSA Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists UCC
History
Former name(s)	Mulberry Street Baptist Church Fifth Avenue Baptist Church Park Avenue Baptist Church
Founded	1823
Architecture
Heritage designation	National Register of Historic Places, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
Architect(s)	Allen & Collens and Henry C. Pelton
Architectural type	Neo-Gothic
Groundbreaking	November 21, 1927 (November 21, 1927)
Completed	October 5, 1930 (October 5, 1930)
Specifications
Capacity	2,100
Riverside Church
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
New York State Register of Historic Places
New York City Landmark
Location	478, 490 Riverside Dr. & 81 Claremont Ave., Manhattan, New York
Built	1930 (main building) 1957 (MLK Wing) 1962 (conversion of Stone Gym)
Architect	Allen & Collens, Henry C. Pelton (main building) Collens, Willis & Beckonert (MLK Wing) Louis E. Jallade (Stone Gym)
Architectural style	Late Gothic Revival
Website	www.trcnyc.org
NRHP reference No.	12001036
NYSRHP No.	06101.001261
NYCL No.	2037
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	December 12, 2012
Designated NYSRHP	October 18, 2012
Designated NYCL	May 16, 2000

Riverside Church is an interdenominational church in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The church is associated with the American Baptist Churches USA, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists and the United Church of Christ. The present church building was conceived by philanthropist businessman and Baptist John D. Rockefeller Jr. in conjunction with Baptist minister Harry Emerson Fosdick, designated to be a large, interdenominational church in Morningside Heights, which is surrounded by academic institutions.

The church occupies the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street, and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus and across from Grant's Tomb. The original building opened in 1930; it was designed by Henry C. Pelton and Allen & Collens in the Neo-Gothic style. It contains a nave consisting of five architectural bays; a chancel at the front of the nave; a 22-story, 392-foot (119 m) tower above the nave; a narthex and chapel; and a cloistered passageway that connects to the eastern entrance on Claremont Avenue. Near the top of the tower is the church's main feature, a 74-bell carillon—the heaviest in the world—dedicated to Rockefeller Jr.'s mother Laura Spelman Rockefeller. A seven-story wing was built to the south of the original building in 1959 to a design by Collens, Willis & Beckonert, and was renamed for Martin Luther King Jr. in 1985. The Stone Gym to the southeast, built in 1915 as a dormitory, was designed by Louis E. Jallade and was converted to a gymnasium in 1962.

Riverside Church has been a focal point of global and national activism since its inception, and it has a long history of social justice in adherence to Fosdick's original vision of an "interdenominational, interracial, and international" church. Its congregation includes members of more than forty ethnic groups. The church was designated as a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2000 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.